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Recfishwest's State-wide Fishing Report 26 August 2022 🎣

| By Seamus on 8/26/2022 12:30:50 AM | Views (531)

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Recfishwest
Fishing Report

26/08/22

The @onstrikecharters crew out of Exmouth have absolutely crushed their billfish snaps over the last week. If you're wanting to snag the best release snaps of sailfish and marlin for your pool room, these are the peeps to see!

Our contributors

Sam Russell

John Dempsey

Peter Fullarton

John Curtis

G'day <>,

Hopefully your time to relax and wet a line this week lined up beautifully with the better weather windows in your area. While not every day was perfect across each region, it's slowly improving across the board as it creeps towards Spring.

Remember to keep sending us your catches by tagging #recfishwest in your online posts! You can also follow and private message your catches to our Instagram page @recfishwest and make sure you let us know where and how you caught it!

For your photos to appear in the weekly fishing report, please make sure they reflect Recfishwest's responsible fish handling practices, just like the images below.

If you're planning to head out this week, stay safe, take plenty of photos and have fun!

Jarrad Lawford

RECFISHWEST FISHING REPORT EDITOR

Pic of the Week!

Nine-year-old Angel Dupe and her dad Brendan caught and released 20 salmon off Foster's Beach on our Southern Coast over the weekend! Angel landed this heavenly catch flicking a ganged mulie using 15-pound line on a Penn Powerfish rod. Great to see youngsters looking chuffed with great catches in better weather this week!

Your fishing photos

If you want to be included in our weekly State-wide Fishing Reports, send your best fishing photos and a description to jarrad@recfishwest.org.au to potentially be featured.

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Catch up on the West Coast Demersal proposals

Missed Recfishwest CEO Dr Andrew Rowland's chat with Monika Cos on Channel Nine about the West Coast Demersal proposals? Click here to watch it on YouTube.

Recfishwest rejects Government's proposals to ban fishing for dhufish and pink snapper for up to nine months.

Recfishwest is bitterly disappointed by the recent paper released by the Government on the future of WA's dhufish and snapper fishery.

Click here to read our article and recommendations made to the Government

Broome catches

Forget cod father, the cod mother was in town recently up in Broome! Hats off to Emma who nearly went barefoot skiing down little Yardogarra before digging in her heels and catching the biggest land-based cod of the season! Great snap from @broomebillfishcharters

Boats

The wind coming from the east this week has had a fair bit of bite behind it and prevented journeys out wide. Skippers who opted to stay in close reported some barra in the local creek systems, with most of the bigger catches over 70cm getting plucked further upstream. The boats that headed offshore have done surprisingly well on the billfish, mackerel and cobia over the past few days, especially around James Price's Point. While the billfish popped up frequently this week, they've generally been finicky on taking the hooks with a lot of smaller boats running lures and baits such as gardies right past their line of sight without much luck. Apparently this week they've swapped munching down on jellyfish to instead go for the schools of blowfish, which results in the billfish moping around sluggishly on the surface and swimming in circles! Due to the consistent breeze, we barely heard of anyone punching out deep for demersal species. Hopefully the breeze calms down over the coming week and we'll see more reds and rubies pulled in from the depths.

Shore-based

Shore-based fishing had some nice pictures of catches come rolling through this week. Hat's off to Emma who landed the biggest land-based cod of the season! Cable Beach benefited nicely from the easterly winds so there was good numbers of salmon and whiting landed from the shallows. The water visibility was decent throughout the week but surprisingly the squid dried up off most of the jetty's, probably because there was a solid spike in the numbers of trevally and queenies taken in close. Barra also went quiet this week around town and have been a bit mysterious the past fortnight. Bluebone are still being caught off the big jetty but make sure you target them during high tide for the best success rate.

Big kudos to Tackle World in Broome once again for their latest insight into what's biting. If you decide to grab your bait and gear from their store before heading out make sure you chat with their friendly crew for tips on the red hot areas.

Exmouth catches

Stephanie Knight @stephie_90_ landed this solid bludger trevally in the shallows, always great fun on the light gear! Photo courtesy of Kyle Poole @salty_horse who gets up to plenty of great escapades up north on his Salty Horse YouTube Channel.

Boats

This week has been hit and miss with the wind, with the last few days blowing wildly. The weekend had nice flat conditions though and loads of boats reported great catches of goldband snapper and rubies out deep when they managed to get them past the tax man. The deeper areas of 100m+ have also seen solid numbers of mahi mahi and marlin pulled in although it's best to either hold the rod when trolling or have the lures closer to the boat so you can reel them in quickly and avoid awaiting jaws. One gentlemen from Exmouth Tackle and Camping Supplies reported jumping in the drink to watch a 40kg marlin be released, only to sadly see it get taken by sharks around 25m down. If you are releasing billfish, swimming them along the boat for as long as possible until they kick back into gear with plenty of energy will help improve their odds of a safe release. The Gulf saw plenty of good longtail tuna pulled in with bust ups commonly sighted over the past week. Mackerel were also popular around the Muiron Islands but they were also tricky to rustle in quickly past the sharks. A few anglers were catching mackies on kayaks out near Helby Bank on the western side about 2km offshore by trolling gardies at two knots. Friday and Saturday's forecast is looking decent again for boats, hopefully the men in grey suits calm down if you decide to wet a line, but if they are prolific make sure you move spots rather than engage in a losing battle.

Shore-based

The spangled emperor on stickbaits and soft plastics are still reliable for our land-based anglers mostly around the wrecks, but the queenies have gone missing over the past week due to the warmer waters being found out wide. Whiting slowed down with the cooler water temperatures again this week but still popped up occasionally off the beaches. Exmouth Tackle and Camping Supplies said that they've seen huge amounts of squid caught over the past week off the west side with anglers taking home big hauls of rings for the pan. Good luck making the painful decision on wearing a black shirt, horrendous for the heat but preferable in case a squid decides to give you a solid spray! We've even heard of 'squid roulette' that involves pointing a freshly caught squid at your buddies for three seconds each until someone is blasted...each to their own! They are still running well so if you want a quick and relatively easy feed definitely try flicking a few jigs in close. Weather is looking great for a land-based fish across today and early Saturday though so good luck if you decide to go for a wander along the shoreline.

Kalbarri catches

Boats

The swell and wind finally decided to calm itself throughout this week, allowing for some boaties to finally venture out a fair distance offshore although the demersal species such as dhufish, breaksea and snapper were mostly on the quiet side. Baldies were quite popular however around the 20-30m mark when anglers were bottom bashing with baits and jigs, with most around the 2-3kg mark. A few skippers managed to find some clearer weed patches closer in to shore and cleaned up on decent squid on the drift, mostly on the northern patches about 4-5km north of town. Closer to the river mouth there was decent feedback on the whiting, tarwhine and flathead.

Shore-based

The land-based fishing was also a bit quiet this week although we were really happy to see the weather brighten and provide the opportunity to get out and about. The improved conditions were perfect timing to round out the Kalbarri Offshore & Angling Club's fishing competition where plenty of youngsters managed to catch some great tailor, flathead, tarwhine, breaksea cod and whiting around town. We heard a few rare reports of snapper being caught off the cliffs but the numbers of larger tailor being caught were great to see. The reef and wave breaks closer to town off the beach also produced some great greenbacks passing over 50cm, while decent flathead, tarwhine and whiting were caught over the sand banks slightly north of the river mouth. Today and early on Saturday and Sunday is looking half decent for a fish, although the wind and swell is expected to pick up again throughout most of next week unfortunately. Better that happens while you're working or studying on the weekdays and hopefully next weekend looks polished!

Geraldton catches

No gold at the end of this rainbow, but there was a hefty slab of silver for Mathew Svenson @mat.svenson who pulled in this beast of a mulloway off the shore recently near Geraldton! He's caught plenty of mighty fish off his yak too, make sure you check out this Instagram page!

Boats

The weather improved a lot this week although we still had slim pickings of catches, it's a cruel world sometimes. On the bright side, almost every Geraldton boatie and Jason Statham's wife could claim they all had a buff baldie this week. Baldchin groper have been more common than blowies over the past few weeks and we've heard stories of anglers not being able to get away from them. All have been solid sizes too, with up to 6kg monsters hauled in mostly close to shore in about 20m depths. Dropping paternoster rigs slightly south of Geraldton right down to Dongara seems to be your best bet at the moment for landing baldies if you want some of the best eating fish in the world. The forecasts on wind and swell were a bit all over the place this week and many were inaccurate. We recommend looking at a couple of different sites like BoM or Seabreeze and calculating an average before setting off. The waters in close remain dirty from the rivers breaking out but fingers crossed we'll see the consistently high average swell of 2m start to back down as we head into spring. This week is looking a bit haywire for increases in swell, but if you do manage to head out hopefully the baldies remain popular for you in close.

Shore-based

Unfortunately a lot of the beaches you might have frequently wet a line from are gone due to some pretty hectic erosion. Regular roads along the beaches suddenly disappearing have changed the land-based fishing approach dramatically over the winter months. We still heard some decent reports of skippy caught at Port Denison, providing a great fight for their size. We highly recommend giving skippy a taste as sashimi if you haven't already, it's extremely underrated. Other than that, the tailor were not too bad this week off Separation Point and Drummond's. The rivers have also broken through, so all the marinas had muddy waters which hindered the fishing success around the jetty's. There was a few yellowtail landed from the shore at Dongara over the weekend although the high swell is still making land-based flicks a tough battle. Even lower swells are still packing a bit of punch to the shoreline so hopefully we'll see this drop by next weekend.

Big thanks to the team at Geraldton Sports Centre for their tips and feedback this week! Make sure you swing by to their store if you need gear or have any questions for the pro's!

Lancelin catches

Lancelin's beaches were tailor-made for tailor throughout this week. Huxley Taylor (that surname just polishes it off) had great success with the Halco Rooster popper, one of the all time greats for catching this hard-fighting species.

Boats

Finally you boaties had a great run of weather to enjoy on the water and the patience waiting around was clear when a line of trailers was spotted along the beach. Most heading out west were rewarded to find the fish were well and truly on the chew. Some great mixed catches of demersal species were landed from a range of depths, with baldies, breaksea cod, dhufish and snapper all well represented in the bags. For those who decided to fish out deeper a few gummy sharks were caught on the bottom baits and tuna schools were running wild on the surface. There was also no shortage of Samson fish and skippy closer to shore inside 30m depths. The waters within the bay have also been crystal clear lately, making for some great squid jig sessions while burly has been helping to bring in plenty of skippy and garfish. The garfish are a mix of both storm and southern, currently you can only keep the larger storm gardies that are huge around 45cm! Using size 7-8 hooks and larger bait helps separate the two species.

Shore-based

Land-based fishers enjoyed the run of offshore winds and low swell, even the weed has decided to back off, leaving weed-free holes and gutters that were ideal for casting. Tailor have picked up along the coast with great average-sized fish falling to lures and baits. Most of the larger tailor have been caught on the reef breaks and gutters. Herring have been difficult to find, making whiting a more reliable choice for the bread and butter fish. Lancelin jetty has been good for some big squid throughout the day and into the evenings, although the fishing has been on the quiet side with the calmer waters and super low tides. Local legend Peter Fullarton is expecting the jetty to fire back up again from this weekend with increasing swell and higher tides. Drone fishers are still getting some nice pink snapper about 150-250m offshore, with early mornings reported as most productive.

Big thanks to Lancelin's fishing guru Peter Fullarton for his feedback from this week, hope you enjoyed wetting a line yourself mate!

Esperance catches

Tyson TNT Tietjens @tnttietjens continues to rake in the solid 40cm+ bream every time he wets a line in the rivers near Esperance, which is impressing the local tackle store crews. For all you youngsters wanting to follow in his success, apparently the key for consistently landing big black bream is visiting popular spots every six weeks as they are spooked easily and take a while to return.

Boats

It's been another treacherous week on the weather front, but there was a couple of nice days that provided some good windows. Sunday was decent and good numbers of boats reported some solid nannies and larger than normal harlie's around the islands. Some brute Samson fish around the 30kg mark gave plenty of smaller boats a good tow around the islands in close. For boats that opted to keep to the shallows there were some stonker flathead around the 60cm mark pulled in around 50m offshore from Lover's Cove right near the boat ramp, while whiting were very popular around Chapman's Point over the weekend. Regardless of where the boats where throughout this week we also heard that squid, herring and garfish were rampant, providing some great moments for youngsters on the dinghy's. Not many skippers chose to get up early and head out deep this week unfortunately as the colder weather has made hiding under the doona in your bed prime real estate. Today isn't looking too bad although the weekend is looking dismal until it starts to calm down early next week.

Shore-based

Land-based fishing once again seemed to outshine the boaties this week. We had more solid gummy sharks pulled in from Roses in the midst of skippy and salmon. The foreshore out in front of the Thai restaurant continues to produce high numbers of King George whiting with many crossing past the 40cm mark into kidney-slapper territory. The viewing area near the port about a kilometre further down is also seeing plenty landed, just make sure you're casting near the weed beds. Squid remained popular off the Tanker Jetty in the shallows but plenty of anglers also caught them off the rock walls near the Taylor Street Jetty. Tyson TNT Tietjens continues to work hard in finding the brute black bream in the river systems by using Google Earth to suss out good spots and space out his visits by at least six weeks to ensure the fish are abundant. He also managed to get some great underwater snaps (pictured above) throughout this week on his Instagram page @tnttietjens. We heard loads of bigger black bream specimens were caught around the 45cm mark in Woody Lake and Quallilup Lake, inland from Munroe Point.

All these tips and feedback was provided by the great crew at Southern Sports and Tackle in Esperance, make sure you pay them a visit for the best gear and tips before wetting a line!

Great Southern catches

Callum Dowell @outback_breamer_baits flexed the success of his homemade 'Mussel Vibe' lures when he landed this solid mulloway as a by-catch while chasing bream near Albany! If you must have 'The Muss' lure that Callum created, you can check out his website that sells them by clicking here.

Boats

Thankfully the sun has been shining this week, allowing plenty of patient boaties to lick the stamp and send it offshore to the shelf. Hapuka and nannies have been in great numbers this week with plenty of solid catches reported. We also saw loads of stonker pink snapper passing the 10kg mark pulled in, with most of the larger specimens going against the trend of the past few weeks and being caught out in the deeper waters. Around the coral grounds, queen snapper and breaksea cod have been prolific off of Albany. The southern waters continue to produce cracking kraken squid in good amounts, although the best success rates were reported drifting through the calmer and clearer waters. The big King George whiting have roamed in similar areas to the squid this week, just drop a paternoster down on to the sand patches for your best chances. Breaksea Island has been a great spot this week if you want to give your rod, reel and biceps a good workout with hefty Samson fish frequently popping up and surprising anglers.

Shore-based

Thankfully there was a little more action this week off the shorelines thanks to a good pocket of days earlier in the week. The feedback was dominated by great catches of hefty beasty black bream this week, with dozens passing the 40cm mark and mostly taking soft plastics and small vibes. The odd mulloway was caught out of the Kalgan this week, with Callum Dowell landing a surprise fish off one of his own homemade 'Mussel Vibe' lures while chasing bream (pictured above). Herring and tailor have been plentiful around the Sand Patch and Bornholm, with the latter usually sitting around the 35-40cm mark.

South West catches

If you didn't catch any fish off the South West over the past week it might be because Trudy Morehouse @squidqueen.wa caught them all on your behalf! Plenty of others who headed out from Busselton over the weekend had a great session on the pinkies with loads tickling the one-metre mark.

Boats

The wind and swell this week was loads better, especially over the weekend which saw more pictures of giant pinkies sent to my desk than ever before. There were barely any snapper caught under the 60cm mark and most were picked up in the southern regions closer to Busselton around the 10-20m depth. They were still going nuts out deep however and bottom bouncing was just as successful as the snapper are starting to head back out to mid-water depths. Because the pinkies were so prolific once again, most skippers reported solely chasing snapper and feedback on dhuies and other demersal species was a little more quiet this week unless they featured amongst the pinkies. No matter where you seem to send it, you're likely to do well on snapper at the moment but over the coming month or so you might have to burn through a bit more fuel as they start to venture back out to the 40-60m territory.

Shore-based

We didn't hear too much successful feedback from the land-based anglers this week although drone fishing for snapper remained decent as they could easily plop their baits 250m offshore. The chop and swell has made it a bit tough to venture out or wet a line with ease off the beaches but if you prefer to stay high and dry, plenty of squid were caught off Busso jetty this past week from right in close to shore and out deep where it drops down to about 10m. Tailor were still common off beaches where fishers could find good gutters or pockets over sand although the whiting slowed down considerably. Apart from Saturday, the weather is looking a lot more spritely from Tuesday onwards and is starting to look a lot more like Spring. Great news if your a mad keen fisher, only mildly great news if Spring makes your hay fever say g'day.

Kudos to Whitey's Tackle in Australind for their advice and feedback this week, make sure you pop in if you're after the best gear and tips before heading out!

Freshwater

Dallas-Trudy Brennan @collie_yak your scenery snaps chasing rainbow trout and redfin perch in shallow streams near Wellington Dam over the weekend is why a lot more anglers are swapping saltwater fishing for the freshwater! Don't worry about the lost lures and jig heads mate, you might pick up a tourism advocacy gig from the town of Collie.

There have been a lot of freshwater fishers targeting larger ex-broodstock brown and rainbow trout over the past week throughout the river systems with mixed results of success due to some areas having cleaner water conditions. The flow of some rivers was so strong due to recent rain that finding good stagnant pools for trout or redfin in deeper waters was tough going, although the shallower streams worked wonders. Dallas-Trudy Brennan and numerous others who ventured up the Collie River and other systems closer to Bunbury reported good numbers of rainbow trout. Drakesbrook Weir produced a few redfin perch but mostly on the smaller side near the banks. Wellington and Harvey Dam were smashed this week but most of the fish were caught in the streams and shallower waters. If you're wanting to get involved with Troutfest 2022 at Drakebrook Weir, make sure you venture down on October 15 to help release hundreds of trout and try your luck at catching them! You can find more info about Troutfest on the Shire of Waroona wesbite and also check out the South West trout stocking numbers and locations here.

Mandurah and surrounds

Mandurah

It was a welcome sight seeing flatter and calmer conditions this week, yesterday afternoon and today produced the goods and saw swarms of boats head out, with more good forecasts expected from Sunday to Tuesday. King George whiting continue to go on their march up the inlet with most anglers targeting them coming home with at least six in the bag all caught in rapid succession. These numbers will only increase as the flood waters retract and the water temperature starts to heat up. Snapper remained prolific this week with all of the larger catches reported in close and the smaller nippers caught out deep, so save yourself some fuel next time you head out. They have remained in close as they have chased the crabs in the shallows and many of the larger pinkies that were opened up revealed blue manna crab legs in their guts. For those who did send it out wide there was still solid dhuies pulled in throughout waters passing the 60m mark with many skippers bagging out. If you're not keen to head out too far, The Bouvard Reefs which is a southern continuation of Five Fathom is producing dhuies, pinkies and other demersal species in only 15m of water. A combination of drifting and bottom bashing has worked nicely but burley is key. Bluefin tuna have also been very common this week between about 30-40m and have been attacking the jigs intended for demersals on the way back up to the surface, make sure you bleed them immediately if you're lucky enough to end up with one in your boat. Land-based fishing around Mandurah dried up this week although 60-70cm pinkies are still being pulled in off the rockwall along with good numbers of squid.

SECRET HARBOUR / PORT KENNEDY / ROCKINGHAM / SAFETY BAY / WARNBRO SOUND

We heard reports of anglers having great catches of squid by jigging underneath the dirtier waters along Five Fathom Bank. Warnbro Sound has seen some impressive King George whiting pulled in, with a few passing the 60cm mark along with big sand whiting, skippy and tarwhine. Pink snapper are still venturing all through Cockburn Sound across the shallows and deeper pockets with most caught around the 60cm mark mostly close to Carnac Island. Point Peron has seen some nice sized tailor caught off the northern tip along with herring on the surface. For those taking out smaller boats and chasing squid, drifting over the shallower weed patches with intermittent sand banks has worked best, especially in the 4-6m depths where you can see the bottom clearly. King George whiting in close around Garden Island have featured mostly around the 35cm mark although larger catches going past 45cm made frequent appearances.

Big thanks to Tackle World Miami and John Curtis for their tips on what's been biting this week!

Perth catches

Just like @camcready_fishing did over the weekend, we were glad to see plenty of metro anglers break the drought on nice shore-based fish over the weekend off the Perth beaches. Nice tailor landed on the OL Keeling before being released.

Boats

When the weather decided to play nice this week it became magical for skippers, with plenty of glassy days providing great fun on the water. A lot of boats punched out to the 100m+ depths and eightbar were caught in great numbers and large sizes in waters deeper than 100m. Dhuies and breaksea cod appeared together mostly in 40m depths and pinkies generally featured in the 20-40m range on a mix of bottom bashing and drifting with burley logs out the back and herring strips or mulies on ganged hooks. A few boats around Point Walter in the river still continue to surprise us by catching solid river tailor around the 35cm mark. Most are being caught along the sand spit close to the channel markers on ganged mulies or small twisties. Tuna off the back of Rottnest seem to have gone quiet although we heard of plenty being caught around Three Mile Reef mostly in the northern suburbs out from Hillarys through to Two Rocks. Today's weather is looking mint, although Saturday is looking windy before it starts to look ideal from Sunday through to Tuesday. Good luck to all of you heading out on the water!

Shore-based

Tailor have hit hard in the northern and southern beaches away from the main metro areas where there isn't as much weed drifting through the gutters, with the afternoons around sunset being the peak time for strikes. Drone fishing off northern beaches from Mindarie through to Two Rocks continues to produce decent snapper. While snapper weren't as common off the moles this week, we did see a rise in the number of solid squid caught off South Mole especially in the glassy morning and afternoon sessions. The Fremantle Sailing Club marina has performed well for squid, whiting and herring with 40cm skippy reported off the rocks. Sunday is looking like your best day for another land-based flick, so make sure you send us your catches big or small to our Instagram page @recfishwest

Big thanks to Anglers Fishing World for providing us the details on what's been biting this week! Make sure you pay their crew a visit for the best gear and tips before you head out in the metro area.

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Recfishwest · 3/45 Northside Drive Hillarys · Perth, WA 6025 · Australia

Catch Information

Species:
Australasian Snapper

Baldchin Groper

Black Bream

Bluefin Tuna

Breaksea Cod

Dhufish

Dusky Flathead

Flathead Catfish

Gummy Shark

Hapuka

Mulloway

Queen Snapper

Roosterfish

Samson Fish

Spangled Emperor

Whiting

This Fishing Report was submitted on 8/26/2022 12:30:50 AM by Seamus and last updated on 8/26/2022 9:16:40 AM.

Location

3/45 Northside Drive
Hillarys, WA AU

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